The pit box is the one area on the race track where a team cannot afford to make the slightest of mistakes. Even the smallest error or time delay can heavily damage a driver’s chances of a good finish. This need for precision is why teams began realizing how important it is to handle the heavy wheelspin that cars undergo when exiting the pit box on concrete surfaces.
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The wheelspin lengthens the time that the car takes to exit the box, eventually affecting the result of the race. This is why teams began spraying the boxes with sticky soda concentrate. It helped the cars to be controlled better when they came in for repairs or fuel and to leave without much damage on the clock. The Las Vegas Motor Speedway is one place where this was done.
Formula 1 driver Liam Lawson and NASCAR star Noah Gragson were recently taking a walk around the intermediate speedway when Gragson explained this process.
He said as a surprised Lawson listened keenly, “This is a super slick pit road. This is almost polished concrete. See all these drops and everything? They’ll literally take a bottle of soda and just spray it cuz it’s super sticky.”
“They’ll just spray it on the box to give us traction leaving pit road.” Understandably, Lawson responded saying that it was the coolest thing he had ever heard.
Over the years, soda concentrate was replaced by stronger and more reliable adhesive compounds. Sprayers or empty water bottles are still used to get the compounds on the pit boxes before the race.
NASCAR adds new rule about using adhesives in 2024
As most often done in such cases, teams began taking advantage of NASCAR’s leniency to allow the usage of adhesives in the pit boxes. The teams with open boxes next to them sprayed the extra areas with adhesives as well and gained an unfair advantage over the years. This led the promotion to finally act this season.
NASCAR now putting limits on where teams can put adhesive chemicals in their pit box as apparently team(s) with an opening at their pit out sprayed beyond their pit box to avoid wheel spin. New rule issued today: pic.twitter.com/wYY50HgQ0t
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) March 27, 2024
It declared that teams can only spray the compounds in their assigned box and doing so outside will be illegal. It also stated, “application of the adhesive product must be sprayed from an enclosed container in a liquid or foam form.”
This rule being put in place adds more light on why teams prefer to be assigned particular pit stalls at the different race tracks they go to.
